Date: 11/02/2009

Source: Department of Finance

Title: SA: Manuel: 2009 Budget Speech, Parliament

Madam Speaker

The storm that we spoke of last year has broken, and it is more severe than anyone
anticipated. Confronted with the prospect of an economic cataclysm, world leaders have announced huge supportive interventions. A transformation of the world economy is in progress, which we trust will tame the excesses of unregulated financial markets. A restructuring of global trade and incomes is underway which we hope will bring greater opportunities to the world's poor. But for now, the transition has brought sizeable disruptions.

The budget that I have the honour to table here today, Madam Speaker, remains firmly focused on a longer term transformation challenge. While responding to the changed economic outlook, our primary goal remains the reconstruction and development of our economy, and the progressive building of a shared future in which we can take pride in the quality of our public services, the creation of jobs for our people and security in our communities...  Below, the full speech can be downloaded as a PDF document.